Botswana Recalls Diplomats From Zim

By Ephraim Keoreng
Staff Writer | Monday February 8, 2010 00:00

 

The recall is a sequel to the recent diplomatic tiff between the two countries after three Batswana wildlife officers were arrested and tied by Zimbabwe for crossing over into its territory.

Despite efforts by Botswana to have the case resolved diplomatically, Zimbabwe has gone the judicial route. Since last week, the Botswana officers have been held in a Zimbabwean jail pending sentencing, which is expected today.

In a statement released last Friday, the Botswana Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed disappointment over the detention of the trio despite continuous efforts to find an amicable diplomatic solution.  The efforts include repeated phone calls by Botswana Foreign Affairs Minister Phandu Skelemani and Botswana Police Commissioner, Thebeyame Tsimako to their counterparts in Zimbabwe. A last ditch attempt by Vice-President Mompati Merafhe to discuss the issue with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was also unsuccessful. 'Phone calls remain unreturned, giving the impression that the government of Zimbabwe does not want to discuss this issue with Botswana.

Additional efforts have included our ambassador in Harare going to the Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry several times to seek their intervention on the matter as well as the ambassador of Zimbabwe to Botswana being summoned twice to the Foreign Ministry to seek the Zimbabwe government's intervention in finding an amicable diplomatic solution to the problem.

As a last endeavour, Vice-President Merafhe, attempted, through the Foreign Minister of Zimbabwe, to meet with President Mugabe at the recently held African Union meeting in Addis Ababa Ethiopia but was unsuccessful,' the statement said.

In retaliation, Botswana has decided to recall its defence and intelligence personnel based at its embassy in Zimbabwe. This means they would come back home at the same time when their counterparts from Zimbabwe return home.

'Botswana has taken a decision to recall its defence and intelligence attachs from Zimbabwe by the end of February 2010. The government of Botswana expects the government of Zimbabwe to reciprocate by recalling its defence and Central Intelligence Organisation attachs from Botswana by the same date,' the statement said. 

The position of the government of Botswana is that the two posts in Gaborone and Harare should be frozen and never filled.

Skelemani told Monitor that the positions have been rendered useless by the Zimbabwean government's refusal to act on the information gathered by Botswana's defence and intelligence attaches in Harare. 'They established facts that the Department of Wildlife officers strayed into the Zimbabwean side by accident. We told the Zimbabweans and asked them to release our people but they are not budging,' he said.

Skelemani said that he expects the issue to be resolved at the bilateral defence and security meeting between the two countries at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe at the end of the month.

The minister insists that the officers are not guilty and that the issue can be resolved diplomatically.